Poet Devkota’s statue in Lhasa

KATHMANDU, June 28 (RSS)- The statue of poet laureate Laxmi Prasad Devkota has been installed on the premises of the Royal Nepalese Consulate General based in Lhasa of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China.

The statue of the poet laureate Devkota was provided by the Nepal Education Council. The statue was jointly unveiled by vice chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region Tsering Samdu, member-secretary of the Nepal Education Council Rama Sharma and Royal Nepalese Consul General Shanker Prasad Pandey.

Speaking on the occasion, the vice-chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region said that a new chapter had been added to the relations between Nepal and China with the installation of the statue of poet laureate Devkota in Lhasa.

Member-secretary of the Nepal Education Council Sharma said it has been a matter of great pride for the Nepalese to be able to install the statue of the poet laureate in Lhasa.

Royal Nepalese Counsul General Pandey said that installation of the statue of poet laureate Devkota in Lhasa has further deepened the relations subsisting between Nepal and China.

The statue unveiling ceremony was attended by about 300 Nepalese and Chinese.

Likewise, a poetry symposium was organised in Lhasa recently. The symposium was participated in by 12 Nepalese and Tibetan poets.

Speaking on the occasion, member-secretary of the Royal Nepal Academy Dr. Tulsi Bhattarai said that the Nepal Education Council and Royal Nepalese Consulate General had carried out a very significant work by installing the statue of poet laureate Laxmi Prasad Devkota in Lhasa.

Probe into public schools demanded

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ILAM, June 28 - Nepali Congress Ilam District Executive Committee, at its meeting held recently, decided to request the concerned office to immediately recognize all the public schools running with private resources.

At a time when the government has declared that education would be entirely free up to the secondary level, it was impossible to collect fees and other assistance from the students and the guardians, the committee has said. Therefore, the government should recognize the schools running with the permission of the government and make ncessary arrangements for teachers at its own expenses.

The committee has also requested the Ministry of Education and Sports to make arrangement for providing peons and other employees to all such schools in accordance with the category of the school concerned. It has also decided to request NC central committee and MPs of the district to take necessary initiatives in this regard.

Govt committed to end child labour

KATHMANDU, June 28 (RSS)- A two-day national consultative meeting on Preparation of the Master Plan organised with the objectives of materialising the government’s commitment to end the worst forms of child labour by 2005 and all types of child labour by 2010 began here today.

About 50 representatives from government and non-governmental organisations are taking part in the meeting organised under the joint auspices of the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management, UNICEF, the World Bank and ILO.

Inaugurating the seminar, member of National Planning Dr. Shankar Sharma pointed out the need for an integrated programme package to eradicate poverty and child labour on a periodical basis.

"It is a matter of sorrow that the children who must be attending the school have been found involved in worst forms of labour", he said, adding besides social and financial reasons, lack of pertinent laws remain an obstacle in eradicating the practice of child labour.

Secretary at the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management Posannath Nepal said social and financial constraints appear to be the main reason behind the child labour across the globe.

He expressed the confidence that the master plan would be helpful in materialising our commitment for ending all forms of child labour within the next 10 years.

Planning expert Dr. Bal Gopal Baidya said that since poverty is the root cause of child labour, priority should be given to poverty alleviation.

Representative from ILO/IPEC Jeneva Geair Moisterd noted that child labour has far-reaching consequences to the national economy.

ILO representative Tine Staremose said the master plan is ambitious but realistic in the national perspective. 

New air-purifying-device!

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KATMANDU, June 28 - Amidst the growing new technologies to check air pollution in the world, a new device to purify the polluted air has been developed in Nepal.

RC Sharma, an Indian-born technician who worked in the USA and now lives in Germany, today presented here a demonstration how the device he "invented" last year, can work to reduce polluting factors in air up to 86 percent.

He sucked the smoke with a pump and sent it in the "Central Processing Unit", a one-cube-foot box which later vented out purified air, leaving carbon segmented in "solution" tubes hanging at the bottom.

However, he was reluctant to disclose what was there inside the white box.

He said that the device is mainly useful for vehicles but it can also be developed in other ways that can be used in kitchens, chimneys and also in mobile forms.

"The main function of this technology is to treat the polluting air by decreasing the sustainable dangerous particles that may be hidden while the vehicle is in the operational mode," Sharma said.

But he said that the same device, called "Sameerbreeze technology" can be used in different sizes.

At the same time, this device can also be used to send "purified air" in the car utilizing the fuel to the fullest, resulting in less fuel consumption.

Sharma further said that he chose Katmandu to launch his device because it is the second most polluted city in the world.

The device is introduced jointly by Gorkha Hydropower Pvt Ltd and Gorkha Engineers and Service International Pvt Ltd.

Snake menace in western Terai

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BUTWAL, June 28 - The menace from snakes has increased in the Terai belt of Lumbini zone with the rise in temperature.

According to Lumbini zonal hospital, Butwal, a total of 367 snake-bite victims were admitted in the hospital from the middle of February till date. Among the victims, six have died.

Of the total number of victims, 38 were bitten by venomous snakes and 329 were bitten by less venomous snakes.

Medical Superintendent of the hospital Dr Taranand Jha said the highest number of patients (153) were admitted to the hospital in the month of Jestha (May-June) of whom 14 were bitten by venomous snakes and three of them died.

Most of the patients who had come for treatment were from Parseha, Makrahar, Butwal, Motipur and Rudrapur of Rupandehi district and Sunwal, Bardghat and other areas of Nawalparasi district.

The hospital has used 380 anti-snake venom over the last five months to cure the snake-bite victims.

In all, 12 people bitten by less venomous snakes and three people bitten by venomous snakes are still coming to the hospital daily. Despite this, there is no shortage of anti-snake venom and technians, Dr Jha said.

This is the hospital which is visited by the largest number of snake-bite victims in the country, he added.

Drug abuse on the rise in Ilam villages

ILAM, June 28 - Trafficking and abuse of heroin,a highly dangerous drug, has been flourishing in some remote VDCs of western Ilam.

The abuse of heroin has been increasing unhindered in the villages of Amchowk and Phakphok and also in the adjacent areas with apparently no control measures over the massive trafficking and abuse of this drug.

Some villagers are worried about this trend and provide information at a request to help control this social menace, but they fear to identify themselves due to fear of drug abusers.

According to a social worker, two women come to the villages from India across Kankarbhitta in Jhapa district in the pretext of business transactions carrying the drug to this area every month.

The women aged about 28 to 35 years bring the drug to the villages hiding it in hair dye and sell it to the local businessmen. The local drug abusers purchase "thito" (heroin in the parlance of drug abusers here) from the local businessmen at Rs 150 per "dose."

According to locals , some of the local youths are also taking heroin due to the misleading belief that the users of heroin will not be affected if they are bitten by venomous reptiles like snakes and scorpions, they do not feel fatigue and become energetic.

On top of this, there is also a significant number of youths who have fallen victim to this bad habit over the last two years. There is also an example in which the drug abusers even go to the extent of ending their life. Last year, a 42-year-old man, Dalle Mailo, became so upset when he did not get heroin that he committed suicide by hanging, a worried local resident said.

Similarly, a youth aged 18 years also tried to commit suicide by swallowing insecticide called Metacid but his life was saved after he was rushed to the hospital immediately by the local people.

Knowledgeable people say the number of locals buying the drug at high price has been increasing because they have good income from cardamom sale. It is reported that the number of women involved in drug abuse has also been increasing substantially.

A local teacher said, on condition of anonymity, that heroin worth hundreds of thousands of rupees is sold in this area every year. He also informed that drug abusers also exchanged cardamom and heroin.

With the efforts of some locals, police raided some shops of local businessmen recently and seized some heroin hidden in hair dye. However, no action was taken against the businessmen nor did the police take any efforts subsequently to control the drug abuse, a local teacher said.

On the advice of some locals, some youths had formed an organisation and developed some plans to fight against the drug abusers and drug dealers. However, when they were threatened by the armed drug abusers, who moved about in groups, the terrified youths wholly aborted their initiatives against the drug abusers and traffickers.

Poaching to be controlled in Chitwan

CHITAWAN, June 28(RSS) - Arrangements have been made to control poaching of tigers, rhinoceros and bears and smuggling of its precious horns, skins and bones from the Royal Chitawan National Park and its neighbouring forests.

On behalf of the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation(KMTNC), deputy director of the department of national parks and wildlife reserves Narayan Poudel handed over goods received from the KMTNC Netherlands chapter to Royal Chitawan National Park conservation officer Gopal Prasad Upadhyaya here yesterday.

Forty bi-cycles and trekking equipments have been received from KMTNC Netherland chapter to check poaching of wildlife at the Royal Chitawan National Park and its neighbouring forests.

A large number of rhinoceros, tigers and bears are killed and their valuable horns, skins and bones illegally smuggled out of the country every year.

At the goods handing over ceremony, Deputy Director Poudel, Royal Chitawan National Park conservation officer Upadhyaya, chief of the KMTNC Sauraha unit Narayan Prasad Dhakal and Parsa district wildlife conservation area Tikaram Adhikari sought the cooperation of everyone in protecting wildlife and increasing its number in the country.

There are about 544 rhinoceros, 135 tigers and 60 tigresses at the Royal Chitawan National Park and its neighbouring forests, according to available statistics.

Speaking from the chair, chairman of the Padmapur translocation commission Baburam Puri stressed the need to take strict measures for protection of wildlife in the country.